


Iron Man Yes, Tony Stark ... Not recommended

by Eiliss



Series: Natasha saves the Multiverses [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, BAMF Tony Stark, But at least she is trying to save the World, Civil War Fix-It, Civil War Team Iron Man, Clueless Natasha, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Fix-It, Natasha can totally be blind when she wants, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Other, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Time Travel Fix-It, Unreliable Narrator, better with a beta, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiliss/pseuds/Eiliss
Summary: Natasha had made a choice on Vormir. The choice to come back in time just after NewYork's invasion.And now she is trying to save the Multiverses without letting Stark interfering. Because she is the true hero, and he is not recommended.Too bad she is so clueless.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Natasha saves the Multiverses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926598
Comments: 74
Kudos: 321





	1. Vormir

**Author's Note:**

  * For [izumi2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/gifts).
  * Inspired by [My Use and Value is What You Do](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18333815) by [izumi2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/pseuds/izumi2). 



> I have the idea of this fiction while I was reading Izumi2 wonderful My Use and Value is What You Do.
> 
> I was thinking; How bad the situation should have been if Natasha with her obvious bias over Tony has to do the choice when to come back in time?
> 
> So thanks Izumi2 for the inspiration, this fiction is for you.
> 
> Now reviewed by the amazing Mirtai

Natasha wasn't happy.

She had done everything possible to save the day with a minimum of loss, and now even her death hadn't been enough. She was dead for nothing, and Stark had almost saved the day. How was that possible? She always thought that Steve would have been the one to do it, not the egotistic and self-centered Tony Stark. How could she have been so badly wrong, especially considering Steve - generous and moral Steve - had been the one who had condemned the Multiverse to death?

She felt she had been stuck in Vormir's orange limbo for an eternity, with the ability to see what happened after her death, and now she had a choice to make which could change the destiny of the Universe. She didn’t know how and she didn’t know why, but she had the possibility to start again and save the day. Everything was on her shoulders now. Her decision could definitely remove all of the red she had and would ever have on her ledger. She just had to choose the right date on the calendar, the new starting point.

Her first thought was to come back at least one year before Thanos's invasion and the battle of Wakanda. Wakanda had the resources and the technologies which could help her to save the World. Natasha would have the time to sit with Steve and help him to understand how it would be wrong to stay in the past, to explain to him how the Multiverses would collapse because of this one selfish decision. Steve had a strong moral compass, it would be easy to convince him, she had no doubt about it.

The other good point about staying in Wakanda was that she would be able to avoid Stark, the selfish little prick. She had always had to manage him if she wanted him to do things for her, or for the Avengers. Natasha was right with her profile, everything was always about him in his mind. Stark had constantly reminded everyone who could hear him that he had saved the day in New York. He liked to scare people about the big threat he had seen on the other side of the portal. Pathetic!

OK. He had been right about that one. For once.

Still, he was a very bad team player, even Steve said it, especially once Wanda had joined the Avengers. The amount of time Steve and Natasha had wasted asking him for more money.

He was so selfish sometimes, and the team had desperately needed money to hunt HYDRA and find Barnes. It had been easier with SHIELD.

Sometimes she had some regrets about the fall of SHIELD.

Maybe she could go there instead and avoid SHIELD falling along with HYDRA. Like that, no more Stark to handle, just good old SHIELD. Fury understood a threat when he saw one, he could help her with all of SHIELD's forces behind him. No one should never have to trust Stark. Once again, ULTRON was proof of that. However SHIELD's fall was before the ULTRON events, and the Avengers needed that to have Wanda in the team. Unlike Stark, Wanda was an asset in fighting Thanos.

What could she do? Come back after ULTRON and have Wanda in the team, or come back before SHIELD's fall and avoid Stark's worst mistake?

Before the fall of SHIELD was better.

The thing is, without ULTRON and the Avengers pushing Tony away as punishment, Wanda would have been a threat too, unless Loki’s glowing stick didn't fall into HYDRA’s hands. Also, Steve couldn’t stay inactive if he knew Barnes was alive and in pain. Unfortunately, that wasn't a parameter she could control, just like the fact that HYDRA would always launch Project Insight, and send the Winter Soldier to kill Fury.

On another hand, if HYDRA hadn't been embedded in SHIELD, she might have been able to save Barnes from HYDRA long before then, and with Steve as his handler, the Winter Soldier could be a great asset for SHIELD and the Avengers. Before the SHIELD fall, though, he was a ghost, and and their only real chance of finding him would have required JARVIS's help. However, it would have been impossible to use JARVIS without Stark learning about his parents' death.

Maybe telling Stark would be a good idea.

If she controlled the narrative it could turn in her favor. Natasha just needed to have Potts, Rhodes and maybe his driver - what was his name already?- present when she told him.

Stark always behaved better when they were around.

Steve wouldn't like that.

So, she had to return before SHIELD's fall, long enough to have the time to catch Barnes.

Maybe she could come back before Stark’s little fight with the Mandarin? Like that she could help him with his personal threat. It was his own mistake once again. Stark was a lost cause, unable to learn from his mistakes. However, it could give him a reason to help them to find and cure Barnes without losing his mind as he had in Siberia, but it had to be after New York. No way was she going before, it could change the outcome of Loki’s Invasion.

Natasha would have to change her profile on Stark and play nice with him to be on his good side if she went back before New York.

The Avengers - the real ones - had to know what kind of threat Stark was.

Iron Man, yes; Tony Stark… not recommended.


	2. Being Cassandra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha begins to understand what it feels like not to be taken seriously.
> 
> Now reviewed by the wonderful Mirtai.

**2** **013**

Natasha was frustrated, and it was a small word to describe how she felt. She had been back in time for a few months already but nothing was going in the right direction. Since she had returned, she had tried to convince Fury to listen to Stark about a second invasion, to make him see no war had ever been won in one battle, but Fury was oblivious. She was so persistent that the Director started to pull back from her, like she had never given him good advice. Maybe he wanted to punish her for having better insight than him.

The last time she had seen him, she had been able to corner him in his office, or maybe it was the opposite. It certainly hadn't been a happy conversation.

“Romanov. Do you really think I don’t know that Stark might be right about a second wave?” He took a deep breath before speaking again. “The purpose of your profile was to keep him unsure about his place into the Avengers Team. We want him trying to keep SHIELD happy, but never reaching his goal.”

Natasha winced, but Fury hadn't finished yet.

“He gives us a huge amount of money because of that. We can only work on the Project Insight because of Stark's money. If we give him just one reason to think he might be right, he could change his mind about funding SHIELD.”

Even if Fury was right about Stark's state of mind, they still needed him more than in the previous timeline. At least, for the moment. However, once HYDRA was expunged from SHIELD, Stark would once again become expendable.

  
“Be careful, Agent Romanov, you need results. If we have to change SHIELD's approach, that means the profile you made for Stark was wrong, and this posting is your way to correct your mistake. SHIELD hasn't given you a new chance just to make mistakes. Remember that....”

Natasha felt a cold shiver down her spine, she was on thinner ice than expected with Fury. She couldn't lose her political capital with Stark. She nodded before leaving Fury’s office.

+++

That had been three months ago. At the same time, in a different timeline, she was starting Steve's adaptation to the 21st Century after his road trip through the States.

Now, though, Steve was being managed by Brock Rumlow. HYDRA Rumlow. HYDRA owned all of Delta Strike Team. Steve was surrounded by HYDRA goons. Luckily, Steve was one of the last good people on Earth, and he would never fall for HYDRA’s tricks.

For the moment, she was drinking a beer with Clint in his Recovery Safehouse. The sun was going down and it was one of the last fine days of autumn. A perfect afternoon to sit on a porch.

They were both unhappy with their current situation. Natasha was stuck in SI's Security office, under Happy Hogan's orders, and Clint hadn’t seen his family since Loki messed with his mind months ago. Natasha was one of the few people allowed to visit Clint, and she was probably the only one who really wanted to see him. Natasha’s skills frightened people, which meant she was as lonely as he was. Almost all of SHIELD perceived him as a traitor, mind-control or not. Laura and the children weren’t able to visit him until he had been cleared by his psychiatrist.

In the other timeline, Clint's psychiatrist was HYDRA, and Clint had been cleared in less than two weeks, which hadn’t helped the regular SHIELD agents' behaviors and beliefs regarding his supposed treachery. Fortunately, this time, she had been able to convince Clint to ask for another one. She had wondered for a little while if it was a good idea to change his psychiatrist. Retrospectively, Clint was more maneuverable after Loki's mind-control partly because he was isolated within SHIELD, but sometimes she wondered if the HYDRA psychiatrist had made him feel worse more than anything else. It was difficult not to consider that, given his strange feelings for Wanda. It was creepy, he had abandoned his family for Wanda without a thought. Maybe that was why he had followed Wanda and not her. At least, it made more sense.

Right now, though, she needed him strong enough to stand with her and follow her lead. She needed him to help her to save the Multiverse. Also, she had a soft spot for Clint and his family, even if it was a weakness.

Clint finished his third beer in one gulp. “So you're now Stark's babysitter, if I understand it right?”

She answered, annoyed, “Not exactly. Potts and Hogan are not letting me close enough to ply my magic on him, but I think I'll have an opportunity to got my foot in the door soon.”

In a few weeks, Hogan would be blown up by an explosion at the Chinese Theater. After that, he would remain in a coma for more than a month and would be only back in the office mid-March. It would be the perfect opening to get closer to Stark, and work on his trust towards her.

Clint sneered. Obviously, he didn't believe her.

“Potts doesn’t trust you, especially after that little game you have played with him while he was dying.”

He was right, the friendship she had once had with Potts when she was undercover had run its course. Potts never got over the fact she was SHIELD. It was such a pity. She would have been quicker in her mission with Potts on her side.

“Indeed. In fact, I don’t even know if Stark knows I am working in the same building.”

She smiled at Clint, regretfully. She should have had secured Potts's sympathy before having to leave after Stark's birthday disaster.

Clint snorted. Even if he was her friend, she wanted to punch him in the face. He knew her skills, how dare he doubt her?

“And what about Rhodes?” he asked.

“I haven't seen him yet. He's still on missions out of the country.”

“He might help you, and remind Stark of his roots as an arms dealer. We just want him to do for SHIELD what he used to do for the US Army after all.”

She nodded slowly. Maybe it was worth exploring. After all, before the end of the year, Rhodes would be able to convince Stark to give him a suit to replace the one he had stolen, in the name of friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have seen recently all of Captain America's movies. And I don't know if it's because I am older now or if the French translation made him sounds better, but Steve Rogers sounds like a hypocritical asshole and an Incel in his movies.  
> If Tony Stark is an imperfect hero, Steve Rogers is a fricking villain.


	3. The Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The SHIELD's fall is happening...and Natasha is not involved in it.

Natasha always knew her commitment to Clint and his family was as special as it was unplanned.

When she was young, Madame B. and the Red Room programme forged her to be as strong as stainless steel and obedient to a fault to themselves. A part of the training was to kill the other girls in the programme, the same girls who grew up with her and were the closest thing she had to a family, but she'd done it because for each promotion there was only one Black Widow and Natasha wanted to survive.

So, yes, her feelings for Clint and his family hadn't been something she was expecting, and to be honest, they were the only people who came close to gaining a place in her heart. That, however, was before Steve. Steve, who always saw the best in people, and realized what kind of heroine was hidden beneath all her Red Room masks, and he was the first to do so. He had had faith in her before, and the way he looked at her now was painful.

Sometimes she asked herself if remaining close to Stark was the best she could do. Even with Happy Hogan out of the way, she had been unable to influence Stark as she wanted. Pepper Potts and JARVIS always interfered, and with Hogan's return to work next month it would not get any easier. The only good thing with Hogan out of the picture was her new position as Pott's bodyguard; at least sometimes she was able to talk to Stark alone, but only for a few stolen moments. Stark still dealt with the Mandarin without her help, he and Rhodes were still thanked by the President, and she was useless.

In the meantime, Steve's look towards her was growing increasingly stony, thanks to Rumlow's influence on him.

Her relationship with Rumlow had always been rocky, he was one of the loudest voices to say she belonged in jail after leaving the Red Room, who had always told her she had no loyalty towards SHIELD, and, oh, wasn't that some sweet irony! Now, Natasha knew it was because she was dangerous to HYDRA.

She had seen Steve grow closer than ever to Rumlow. He went out after work with the Strike team, and even on a weekend hunting trip. Steve never did this kind of thing with her, and a small part of her was jealous of it even though she had never liked to hunt. (Well, they had hunted Barnes but that wasn't the same thing.) She had tried on several occasions to invite Steve for a drink just to create a link with him, but each time he had declined the offer with pointed comments about loyalty and American values. It had been difficult not to roll her eyes.

She didn't know what to do. In a few months, HYDRA would launch Project Insight, and she needed to be at Steve's side to control the damage. Last time, she had had the time to conceal Clint's current mission information, the Barton family's location, and some of her dirtiest missions from SHIELD's database before dumping it. Of course, Steve had no knowledge of that fact. With Rumlow in the vicinity, she was afraid Steve would not survive until the launch date. If she could kill Rumlow, it would save her a lot of trouble, but she wasn't sure she could do it, observed as she was either by Fury or JARVIS.

Her relationship with Clint was another bump in the road. It seemed that since he was seeing a shrink he was less receptive to her opinions. Honestly, this wasn't the moment to put his back up, she needed him to follow her lead, to save the world. Maybe switching shrinks had been a bad idea. Clint had been way more compliant after New York, and even more so after Wanda had joined the team. A part of her didn't want to think about that, the only thing she wanted to focus on was the fact that Clint was happy, even if it was artificially.

They were fighting about Stark. Natasha tried to convince Clint to help her to change Fury's mind about the billionaire, but Clint believed that evaluation she had done on him. Not for the first time since she had come back, she cursed herself for that damned evaluation. Yes, Stark was a pain in the ass, but they needed him to save SHIELD before it was too late, after that he was expendable. She was running out of time, SHIELD was going to the wall, Steve didn't trust her, Clint and Fury weren't listening to her, and Stark was out of her control.

She had nothing, and she didn't want to have to restart again, as Red Skull had. While she was waiting on Vormir they talked, they had nothing else to do, fighting was useless for both of them. She learned from him how he had come back to the past several times to accomplish his destiny (his words, not hers), and she had realized he finally stopped after failing too many times against Steve. This certitude drove her since she was back, once Stark had done his duty she would have to focus on Steve because if he was able to foil Red Skull's plans without any insight, then he was surely the key to saving the Multiverse.

+++

When the Data Dump came, it was five months earlier than expected and Natasha never saw it coming. All of her fears came true in one minute. When it happened, she wasn't with Stark, because it was her day off work at SI, and she wasn't with Steve because he didn't trust her. She learnt about the situation from the news because nobody needed her, and she had no information about what had differed from the last time to explain this outcome. It was only long after the event that she would learn just why SHIELD had fallen so much earlier.

She was blind, and she didn't know why. It stunned her, and before she realized it was almost too late for Clint and his family, so she did the only thing she could, and reached for her phone.

She waited nervously for Potts to answer, hoping she had Stark's number. It took time, too much time, maybe Potts was dead and it hadn't hit the news yet, then she heard a voice.

“Good afternoon, Natasha, this is really not a good time. I'm dealing with SHIELD's mess”, Potts said harshly.

Natasha winced when she heard how Potts spoke, she wanted to protest but it wasn’t the moment.

“I have heard the news, and I think I need help.” Natasha hated having to say every word.

“Of course you need help!” Potts answered ironically. “And what do you need, a new protector since SHIELD can’t hide you anymore? I've seen your files, Romanova, and I'm wondering just why an assassin was sent to SI...”

Natasha felt a cold shiver of fear; if all of her past was online and not encrypted the situation was worse than she thought initially.

“It’s not for me, it’s for Clint, he has a family. A wife and two children, Lila and Cooper. They are under five and their location may be compromised.” It was almost killing her to have to beg for help like that, especially from Potts, who never praised her.

Natasha heard Potts swearing for the first time in her life.

“Do you know where they are? It would be easier if we don’t have to decrypt their location to send the Iron Legion as quickly as possible”

“Yes, I can send it now.” She waited a short while to show her hesitation to Potts, because she needed to be believed. “Miss Potts, Pepper… I know you have every reason in the world not to trust me, but, please, let me help”.

It was double or nothing. If Potts trusted her, she might be able to save her ass, but if she didn't, then Natasha would become a fugitive, with all her files online.

The silence was almost painful, then Potts said, “Come to the tower, we'll see what we can do about you”, then she hung up on Natasha.

It wasn’t a warm welcome, but it was her only chance now to stay in the game. Natasha quickly sent the GPS coordinates of Barton’s farm and Clint’s latest mission information to Potts. Unfortunately, Clint had been back in the field for two months, it would have been better if he had still been benched.

She stuffed some clothes in a duffle bag, and decided to hide a weapon and three of her passports in her neighbour's flat, before concealing the rest in her own flat. She knew the ones in her flat would be found by anyone with any kind of search technique, but she also knew that once found, nobody would search for more. Natasha looked around the place which had been her home for the last four years one last time before closing the door; she would never come back, and this part of her life was behind her. As a Russian, she had learnt that regimes and agencies could fall every day and not to weep over that, so the pinch in her heart was certainly not real.

+++

When she arrived at the tower she was surprised to see journalists in the lobby. They were loud and almost yelling at the receptionist, wanting to know when Stark would come to give an interview. Had it been like that the last time?

She decided to avoid the crowds and enter by the back of the building. Hogan was waiting for her, she had been tracked by JARVIS on her way over. Hogan nodded in welcome and moved aside to let her enter first, she greeted him with the same gesture, and tried not to think about Hogan behind her looking at her like she was a potential threat.

They took the elevator and went directly to a large room covered with screens. On each screen, she could see an Iron Legion armor helping someone. Had Stark done that the last time? She remembered being annoyed because it had taken him almost two weeks to answer when she had tried to contact him, and when she finally saw him he looked like a zombie. She had thought he had been partying but maybe he hadn't. She was uncomfortable with the picture which was emerging before her, it was too different from what she expected from someone as egocentric as Stark. Potts was surely behind all of this rescuing business.

Hogan indicated a glass-walled office and told her she should wait. Potts was inside calling someone, but Stark was nowhere to be seen. She was right, everything here was run by Potts, Stark was too selfish to think about anyone other than himself. While she waited, she looked closely to see if she was able to recognize the SHIELD agents being saved on the different screens. On one of them, she recognized Sharon Carter and Maria Hill, both were looking exhausted but alive. She tried to find Steve or Clint but they were nowhere to be seen. On the other side of the glass wall, Potts signed to her to enter.

Potts didn’t let her say a word before starting.

“This situation is a mess. Currently, we have more than 50,000 estimated fatalities. It seems Rogers decided to dump all of SHIELD’s data online to stop HYDRA. A Pyrrhic victory, but unfortunately it came too late because HYDRA still had time to launch their guided missiles,”

Potts's face twisted like she was smelling something bad when mentioning Steve. There was no love lost there. Considering her options, Natasha decided quickly to stick with Potts on this, after all, she was the one with the money now.

“It was a bad move. Do we know who were HYDRA’s targets, and who's still alive? They may need protection,” she said as professionally as she could.

Potts looked at her cautiously and Natasha gave her her best worried-face. It seemed to work, because she looked a little bit less defensive when she answered.

“Tony and l. Bruce Banner. Fury seems to be dead. A few senators and of course the President. The list is long. Fortunately, the President and most of the senators are still alive. HYDRA's work was messy.”

That surprised Natasha; with the DNA tracer used by HYDRA, the casualties should have been higher. She remembered the frightening precision of HYDRA’s weapons, this simply wasn’t logical. Then she realized why Project Insight had been launched earlier; this time Stark’s technology hadn’t been used, but why?

Suddenly, she heard Stark’s voice coming from a terminal. She could see his face from the camera inside of the suit on one screen, while a second screen showed what Stark was able to see. Then Natasha realised who he held in his arms, and it made her freeze.

“I have Barton. He's in bad shape. Please contact Dr. Cho, the last blow he took was powerful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you are enjoying this story


End file.
